The Dogs of Toronto Animal Services South

A couple of weeks ago, 4 Labradoodle puppies were brought into TAS from a puppy mill. Here's a short e-mail describing their condition along with some photos taken just after they were rescued from the mill.

The Labra-Doodle pups are terrified. They were starving and devoured the food I gave them. The pups were not getting fed enough in the mill James, so they really growl at each other and fight over food. They are like wolf pups when it comes to food. You will need to feed them in several dishes.

The puppies were soaking in their own piss and feces - the condition in which they were kept at the mill. They had no concept of what it was to not live, eat and sleep in their own filth. Their lack of exposure to people, or at least caring people, made them cower whenever someone approached.

The staff and volunteers at Toronto Animal Services South have all been helping in rehabilitating the Labradoodle pups and all four have improved tremendously. I'll post photos of them over the next few days as I get them processed.

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A request

The reason for this blog is to help get specific dogs adopted from TAS but equally important is to try to normalize the idea of shelter dogs being just as good and just as desirable as any other dogs including those which are regularly merchandised by backyard breeders, puppy millers and those few remaining pet store owners who still feel a need to sell live animals. The single greatest stigma shelter animals still face is the belief that shelter animals are substandard animals. Anyone who has had enough experience with shelter animals knows this is untrue but the general public hasn't had the same experiences you've had. They see a nice dog photo in a glossy magazine and too many of them would never think of associating that dog with a dog from a shelter. After all, no one abandons perfectly good dogs, right? Unfortunately, as we all know, perfectly good dogs are abandoned all the time.

The public still too often associates shelter dogs with images of beat up, sick, dirty, severely traumatized animals and while we definitely sometimes see victims such as these, they are certainly not the majority and, regardless, even the most abused animals can very often be saved and made whole again.

Pound Dogs sometimes discusses the sad histories some of the dogs have suffered. For the most part, though, it tries to present the dogs not as victims but as great potential family members. The goal is to raise the profiles of animals in adoption centers so that a potential pet owner sees them as the best choice, not just as the charity choice.

So, here's the favour I'm asking. Whenever you see a dog picture on these pages you think is decent enough, I'd like you to consider sharing it on Facebook or any other social media sites you're using (I know many of you do this already and thank you for that). And when you share it, please mention that the dog in the photo is a shelter dog like so many other shelter dogs waiting for a home. If we can get even five percent of the pet buying public to see shelter dogs differently, to see how beautiful they are and how wonderful they are, and to consider shelter dogs as their first choice for a new family member, we can end the suffering of homeless pets in this country.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------